"Both the standard and the baritone Weissenborn copys are like fine wines and improving with age. Aside from
this they generate numerous comments for their art and detail. Things of beauty."

Dale LawrenceAnnandale NSW Australia

History of the Hollowneck Slide Guitar

Hermann Weissenborn

The Hawaiian music craze during the mid teens of the last century made its way to the North American west coast where luthier Chris Knutsen had been making hollow neck instruments for some years previous. He was most likely to have invented the Hawaiian hollow neck slide guitar. Hot on his heels was Hermann Weissenborn a stringed instrument manufacturer and repair man. It was his development of the hollow neck slide guitar that set the stage for all of the Hawaiian slide instruments that followed.

Although Hermann Weissenborn's instruments became the most popular and have become the most sought after, others such as Hilos, Konas, Schireson, Greenfield and Lyric have left a definite mark on the world of slide guitars. Each have their own sound and voice but "Weissenborn" is still king.

Today the slide instruments made famous by Hermann Weissenborn are played by many musicians such as Ben Harper, David Lindley, Steve Dawson, Xavier Rudd, Jerry Douglas, Colin John , Sally Van Meter and Doug Cox. What started as an instrument for Hawaiian music is now used for many other types and styles.